“Sound good?Go home, have ice cream, have some quiet time?”
Tori tried to decide whether she wanted to have a melt down or not.
“Ice cream!”Petey cried out.“I like ice cream.”
“Then let’s go home and have some.”JP started walking toward the parking lot.
“Man, brother, you have a tired little family right here.”
“I’s not tired!”Tori insisted.“I want fancy ice-cream!”
He scooped Tori up.“Let’s go, guys.Ice cream at home.”
“No!Me wants good ice-cream!”She was about to have an absolute meltdown about it, too.
“Victoria, stop shouting right now or you aren’t getting any ice-cream at all.”JP all but growled the words out.
“Michael.Please help JP in the car.”He held the kicking and screaming Tori in one arm and took the now sobbing Peter in the other.“And open the car doors?”
“Yeah, we’ve got this.”Mike got the back doors open first, then helped JP get in the passenger seat.
He put Peter in first, locked him in, ignoring Tori’s screams with experience.
“How are you so calm?”JP asked as he moved around to the other side of the car.
“I’m used to it.She has a tipping point, a temper, and her little body doesn’t understand rest.”Ian winked at JP.“I blame you.”
“Go ahead, I have broad shoulders.”
“Mmhmm.”And he was a little in love with them.
He got settled behind the wheel, and JP touched his leg, which let him focus on something other than Tori who was still wailing in the back.
“Are you okay to drive with that or should we wait until she’s cried it out?I assume she will cry it out.”
“Oh, we’ll just head home.They’ll both be asleep before we get to the end of the block.”Ian winked over.He wasn’t worried.That wasn’t the sound of real distress.That was exhausted anger.
Sure enough, the sounds faded, and when they got home both twins were fast asleep, tears staining their cheeks.
JP sighed.“I wish I could help you carry them in.”
“You can stay in the garage with one while I grab the other, though.That’s a help.”
That earned him a nod.“I can totally do that.I’m extremely good at sitting right now.Like an expert at it.”
“I just hope the workers are gone.Thank goodness Alex was there to clean so that she could watch them.”
“You worry too much, Chou.Take a breath and then move the kids.I’ll be here until you’re done.”
“I will.”He pulled in to the garage, tickled to see the big van gone.“All right.We’re home.I’ll start with Tori.She needs a deep, long nap.”
“We all do.”JP gave him a wink.
The man wasn’t wrong.
He carefully undid the belts on Tori’s car seat and picked her up.She didn’t wake up, thank goodness.
She was limp and heavy in his arms, and the house looked amazing, a folded up chair lift at the bottom of the stairs, a new door waiting for him to paint it and install a locking door handle.
